The reason Black History Month is in February is weird
The month of February marks the start of Black History Month across the nation. The first presidential recognition of this celebration was by Gerald Ford in 1976, but before that, Black History Month had commonly been a recognition of Black and African-American achievement over the course of a singular week—more specifically—the second week of February. This Black History Month predecessor was brought to the public through what is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which was founded in 1915 by historian Carter G. Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland.
The national recognition of this holiday is an important landmark in the United States of America’s ever-developing acknowledgment of the horrific history behind the treatment of Black and African people from the inhumane practice of chattel slavery to the more subtle systemic oppressions such as redlining and microaggressions. With this being said, some of the reasoning behind why February, the shortest month of the year, was chosen to be the designated month, just leaves me feeling uneasy.
Before I officially leave the “hate-train station,” I will first acknowledge some of the strengths this choice offers. That is the fact that two prolific figures of Black liberation were born in the month of February. This includes civil rights activist Rosa Parks, born on Feb. 4, 1913, and the observed birthday of Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman on Feb. 14. Due to Douglass being born into slavery, the exact day, month, and year of his birth are not exactly known, but this currently serves as the best estimation, with doctors during his time placing the year of his birth in either 1817 or 1818.
Both of these figures stand as important thought leaders and activists of their time, concerned with two of the largest liberation movements in the country’s history, and most certainly for aiding in receiving the freedoms of people of color in America. Due to the range of major events that can be celebrated through these figures, I am inclined to agree with the official choice to place Black History Month in February. With the inclusion of one of the major reasons why Black History Month occurs in February, alongside the exclusion of Rosa Parks’s birthday in popular reasoning, however— my certainty dwindles.
Said to have been among the reasons Woodson and Mooreland originally chose the second week of February to celebrate Black history, was Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and was born on Feb. 12, 1809. He is most known for his two speeches, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, as well as being one of four assassinated U.S. presidents. Notably, he was the president during the events of the Civil War and is often credited with freeing slaves throughout America in the first of the two mentioned speeches. This, though, is not accurate to the actual events of the time.
The Confederacy, which supported the continued bondage of slavery, was home to the largest Black and African populations in America. They used these individuals’ free labor to keep the South’s economy steady while replacing the labor of men who were off fighting in the war. This gave the Confederacy advantages the Union did not have. To mitigate this, Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared enslaved people in rebelling states free, but with no true stronghold abolitionist force in the South, there was no real way to enforce this declaration. On top of that, states bordering the Mason-Dixon line that remained loyal to the Union were allowed to maintain their slave populations.
I feel like having Black History Month in February being accredited, in part, to Lincoln’s birthday, overshadows the stated motive behind the celebration itself. If the point is to highlight the historic fight for Black and African-American liberation in America, why is it based on Lincoln’s false nobility? If the point is to get to the truth of the deeply-seeded racist history that allowed the United States to become the global superpower it is, why have it occupy the shortest month of the year?
Thumbnail Photo:
Frederick Douglass, ca. 1879. George K. Warren. (National Archives Gift Collection)
Exact Date Shot Unknown
NARA FILE #: 200-FL-22
WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 113